Take Shelter : It was real (spoilers)

It was real (spoilers)

Think about it, all that preparation, and then he is convinced hy his shrink to take a vacation and commit himself. he should have stayed with his gut instinct as he was correct. All that forewarning and prep for nothing. There is no way they could outrun the storm in a car. In the end he was correct and knew it but powerless to protect his family. He was just as "unprepared" as the rest of the world even with the knowledge he had. Good movie but its silly to think it was a dream. It was vindication, but sadly they were caught off guard.

Re: It was real (spoilers)

I think it was saying there wasn't anything he could do about it. Life comes at you and all the preparation in the world can't stop it.

Re: It was real (spoilers)

I agree with you. I thought of this movie and the debate about the ending when debating the ending of another (and much better) movie, Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation. Here's what I said over at that board (I will spoiler tag the part that discusses the Coppola film because the warning in the subject line only applies to Take Shelter):


The amount of effort people have expended on debating "where the bug is", why the word "us" sounds different, how they hid the body and cleaned up the mess...srsly? 😖

Let me spell it out for you:

THERE WAS NO MURDER. THERE WAS NO BUG. THERE WAS NO PHONE CALL AT THE END. THOSE WERE ALL DELUSIONS OF A MAN WHO HAS LOST HIS MIND.


It's funny, because I have also found myself disagreeing with most people about the end of a more recent (and certainly less toweringly great) movie, Take Shelter. In that movie's case, many or even most people discussing it seem to take the interpretation that the ending is a delusion on the main character's part. I think in that case, it's just the opposite and that what had previously seemed to be delusions were in fact intended to be seen as real. One big distinction is that the final scene in that film includes the man's wife also apparently seeing the "delusion". Now, he could be hallucinating that she is seeing it; but in filmic language, having a "witness" (which he had not had previously in the movie) is a big hint to the audience that something is "real" within the universe of the story. Here, the bloody hand, bloody toilet, and phone call are all shown when Harry has no one with him witnessing events.


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Re: It was real (spoilers)

guncrazy54^

That's how I see it, too.

He should have stuck with his gut instinct.

When folks post about the 'control' aspect, what I see is not his struggling with some kind of 'internal' control, but all these external controls (the people around him) that convince him to go down the path he did and in the end ignore the prophecies.

He was experiencing something that was fantastic about fantastic events, and something that the 'normal' world could not, would not, comprehend.

They would rather have him crazy (something they could understand), despite how 'Joe Normal' he was up to that point and how trustworthy he had always been, as opposed to believing that something fantastical could actually be happening to him.












"Shake your hair girl with your ponytail"

Re: It was real (spoilers)

Wow! I saw this movie yesterday and was blown away by its premise. Skimming through some of the comments on the board, it seems that people are divided into two camps regarding the ending — reality versus dream. Like many of you, I believed the ending was real and believed Curtis experienced premonitions through dreams and visions throughout the movie. Watching this movie made me think of two other movies — The Mist and Noah. In all three movies, fathers take measures to save their families.

In the Mist, the father tries to save his son from a horrific death by monstrous creatures by committing a mercy killing. The tragedy is the father learns after killing his son, that soldiers and not monsters emerge from the mist making the killing of his son unnecessary .

In Noah, Noah builds the ark to save his family from an impending disaster. The people laugh at him and call him crazy. He saves his family.

Likewise, in Take Shelter, Curtis experienced visions, dreams or premonitions of an apocalyptic event and takes measures to save his family. People called him crazy, and he even began to wonder about his sanity. The tragedy for Curtis is the confirmation that his visions and dreams were true and even though he took efforts to save his family, he cannot save them.







I would have followed you, my brother. My captain. My king. --Boromir
LOTR: The Fellowship of the Ring

Re: It was real (spoilers)

BeBeBlue7^

"The tragedy for Curtis is the confirmation that his visions and dreams were true and even though he took efforts to save his family, he cannot save them."

Well said!




"Much communication in a motion, without conversation or a notion"

Re: It was real (spoilers)

Yep! You just nailed it, guncrazy! It was real, all three of them saw it. A great ironic ending to a brilliant film. I give it an 8.5.









Schrodinger's cat walks into a bar and doesn't.
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